The benefits of scarifying a lawn

August is the last official month of summer, and you may notice your lawn losing its luscious green look and starting to look patchy and yellow.

Don’t despair though, yellow grass isn’t dead grass, and if you take the right steps in autumn, your lawn can be bought back to life.

There could be a few reasons why the grass is turning yellow such as cutting with a mower blade that isn’t sharp enough or may have a damaged area, which means it tears the blades of grass instead of slicing it cleanly. Another reason (out of your control) could be the heat which would have shrunk and compacted the soil and grass hates this – you need to scarify the surface remove the dead grass and thatch.

What is scarifying?

This is an invasive treatment, also known as de-thatching, removing thatch and moss from your lawn. These days you don’t need to use your garden fork or put in hours of hard work, there are machines available especially for the job, the top-quality Webb WEESR Electric Scarifier is a powerful, fast and convenient way to refresh your lawn by using a gentle teasing action to clear away the dead material to expose the soil.

When is the best time to scarify the lawn?

• Early autumn and late spring (not too early when frosts may still occur) are considered to be the best times to take full advantage of both the weather and ground conditions while the grass is growing strongly.
• Make sure your lawn isn’t too dry, a lawn that is a little moist underneath but dry to touch is ideal. If there is no rain forecast, just be sure to water your lawn a couple of days before scarifying.
• If you can try to scarify the lawn when the weather forecast looks good, this will give your lawn a good few days to recover.
• Do not scarify your lawn when it is wet, you could cause some serious damage by pulling out the grass by the root.
• Be prepared – after scarifying, your lawn will look worse than when you started, but be patient your lawn will grown back stronger than ever.
• As a general rule you should scarify every other year.

What to do next?

• Avoid mowing for a week or so, depending on the rate of growth.
• Add some lawn grass seed if your lawn is patchy.
• Add some fertiliser into the lawn after seeding to aid recovery for existing grass and new seedlings.
• Be patient it can take between 4 – 6 weeks for a lawn to fully recover.